Discussion of Non-Equilibrium Heat Transfer in Biological Systems

To study the nature of the previously observed wave like behaviors of heat propagation in biological materials, the approach of simulating the non-homogeneous biological material as a de-formable porous medium was taken. It was shown that, the wave-like heat conduction in the bologna meat can be caused by the propagation of water in the porous medium due to thermal expansions and pressure gradients applied to the meat during measurements. Thus, in contrast to the previous thermal wave interpretation, the mechanisms of the observed phenomena may be attributed to the thermal non-equilibrium between solid and liquid in the biological material rather than the pure conduction.